Brooklynn Dodge might have been the most excited 7-year-old to walk into El Paso Elementary School on the first day of classes this fall.

That she’d ever be 7 or get to go to school were never guaranteed for this bright-eyed, wide-smiled girl who struggles to think of something specific when asked what makes her happy.

The secret to her attitude?

Not taking anything for granted. A lot of people try to live by that motto.

Brooklynn is just glad to live.

A newborn’s heart is the size of a walnut. Only half of Brooklynn’s has worked since she was born.

“She has half a heart. She doesn’t have 100 percent lung function. She’s missing a large part of her neurological anatomy. And she’s rockin’ it,” said her mother, Melissa Dodge.By the time Brooklynn joined Erin Lewis’ first-grade classroom Aug. 15, she’d undergone 21 surgeries, three of which were open-heart procedures – the first when she was only 8 days old. She spent seven months of the first year of her life in hospitals. She has overcome a paralyzed diaphragm and is still living with a paralyzed vocal cord. She sleeps on oxygen because doctors diagnosed her in 2016 with chronic lung disease.

Dodge found out when she was 18 weeks pregnant that Brooklynn was the one in an oft-cited statistic. One out of every 100 babies born in the U.S. come into the world with a congenital heart defect.

Brooklynn has hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, affects normal blood flow through the heart. The left side of Brooklynn’s heart did not form correctly.

Since birth – and even before, really – doctors and surgeons at Children’s Mercy Hospital in the Kansas City area have worked to keep Brooklynn alive. Dodge said staff at the hospital are like family.

Brooklynn’s teacher, Lewis, said Brooklynn “reminds me that even on my worst day, I have nothing to complain about.”

Despite being in a constant state of heart failure, Dodge said her daughter “is so thankful for life. She never has a bad day. Her joy ... is massively contagious.”

]]>Heart,In The NewsThu, 11 Oct 2018 20:54:22 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_derbyinformer-happyandalive-brooklyn.jpg?10000The Washington Post: Children who lived with smokers are more likely to die of lung disease as adults, study sayshttp://news.childrensmercy.org/the-washington-post-children-who-lived-with-smokers-are-more-likely-to-die-of-lung-disease-as-adults-study-says/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/the-washington-post-children-who-lived-with-smokers-are-more-likely-to-die-of-lung-disease-as-adults-study-says/By Kate Furby

Childhood exposure to secondhand smoke is linked to lung disease decades later, according to a study published Thursday by the American Cancer Society.

For 22 years, researchers have been following more than 70,000 adults who have never smoked. At the beginning of the study, they were asked whether they lived in a household with a smoker while they were children. Those who did were 31 percent more likely to die of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This is the first study to find a correlation between the two.

Thesurgeon general definessecondhand smoke as both the smoke from the burning cigarette and the smoke exhaled by smokers. “Whether you are young or old, healthy or sick, secondhand smoke is dangerous,” the surgeon general's report said, “no amount of secondhand smoke is safe.”

“There is evidence that secondhand smoke is even more detrimental than smoking. A lot of cigarettes have filters. So it [secondhand smoke] can be more detrimental in that regard,” said Geetha Raghuveer, a pediatric cardiologist at Children's Mercy Kansas City and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Medicine.

While most adults know nicotine is bad for children, smokers and some other individuals aren’t convinced of this fact, according to a U.S. study that suggests a need for more public education about the risks of tobacco.

Overall, 83 percent of adults understand that nicotine is “definitely harmful” to children, the analysis of national survey data from almost 12,000 U.S. adults found.

But adults who used multiple tobacco products were 60 percent more likely than nonsmokers to say nicotine was “not harmful” for children.

“It is important that all adults, not just parents of young children or tobacco product users, understand that nicotine is very harmful to children,” said lead study author Catherine Kemp, a public health researcher at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

“There is no established safe level of nicotine exposure for children,” Kemp said by email.

Nicotine exposure can cause upset stomach, nausea, vomiting, changes in heart rate and blood pressure, breathing problems, and seizures in kids and can be fatal at high doses, Kemp noted. Chronic exposure can lead to heart problems, asthma, developmental and behavioral disorders, an increased risk of addiction to other drugs.

In the study, women were 60 percent more likely than men to recognize that nicotine was “definitely harmful” to kids. Men, meanwhile, were 40 percent more likely than women to think nicotine wasn’t harmful or say they weren’t sure about the risks.

Compared to adults with a college degree, people with only a high school diploma were more than twice as likely to say nicotine was not harmful to kids, researchers report in Pediatrics. And when people didn’t finish high school, they were three times more likely to think nicotine wasn’t dangerous, compared to college graduates.

Race was also associated with how adults thought about the risks of nicotine exposure for kids.

Compared to white adults, Hispanic and African-American survey participants were much less likely to believe nicotine was definitely harmful.

Most often, kids are exposed to nicotine from a parent or another person who lives in their home, Kemp said. In the study, approximately one-third of tobacco users had at least one young child at home.

One limitation of the study is that the survey focused only on the general question of whether nicotine might be harmful for children under 13 years old, the authors note. Researchers lacked specific data on how people thought about the nicotine risk of specific tobacco products.

Another drawback is that the study lacks data on what’s behind people’s beliefs about nicotine, so it’s unclear how much some individuals might say it’s not dangerous for kids out of denial versus out of a genuine lack of understanding of the risks, said Dr. Geetha Raghuveer, a cardiologist at Children’s Mercy Hospital and professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine.

Although Boston Children's Hospital remains the nation's No. 1 pediatric hospital, Children's Mercy in Kansas City scored higher marks this year, according to the annual ranking of the top pediatric care centers by U.S. News & World Report.

The Kansas City-based children's hospital did not make the honor roll of the top 10 U.S. children's hospitals, but it did rank in the top 50 for all 10 specialties the report measured.

In particular, Children's Mercy advanced in two specialties: cardiology and nephrology.

Whitney Pierce was 11 years old when she decided to become a nurse. Born with a heart defect that makes one of her heart's chambers essentially useless, she'd had her first heart surgery at three days old and two more before age 6. In other words, she'd spent enough time at the hospital by then to know what her future workplace might be like. "It's really the nurses who get to know their patients," she realized when a nurse bent the rules to give her a tiny sip of water before a cardiac catheterization procedure.

Since then, Pierce completed college and nursing school, and bought a house and a dog. Now, at age 30, she works with heart patients atChildren's Mercy Kansas City, where she received care as a child. She encourages parents to teach their children about their heart defects so they can take control of their care when they start seeing adult practitioners, and to not scare themselves by doing too much internet searching about their children's conditions. Meantime, she assures them that while the process is overwhelming and often frustrating now, it passes. "I spent months in the hospital [as a baby and toddler] and I don't remember any of that," Pierce tells them. "It doesn't last; it does get better."

]]>Heart,In The NewsThu, 28 Jun 2018 21:02:25 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_whitney.jpg?10000For the First Time, Six Children's Mercy Specialties Rank in Top 25 by U.S. News and World Reporthttp://news.childrensmercy.org/for-the-first-time-six-childrens-mercy-specialties-rank-in-top-25-by-us-news-and-world-report/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/for-the-first-time-six-childrens-mercy-specialties-rank-in-top-25-by-us-news-and-world-report/All 10 specialties ranked for fourth year in a rowKANSAS CITY, Mo., June 26, 2018 – Children’s Mercy is once again recognized as one of the nation’s top pediatric hospitals, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2018-2019 “Best Children’s Hospitals” report. For the fourth year in a row, Children’s Mercy is listed among the best in the country in 10 out of 10 pediatric specialties included in the survey. Children’s Mercy is among an elite handful of pediatric hospitals which consistently rank in all 10 specialties. This year, seven specialties moved up an average of nearly 10 spots.

Six Children’s Mercy specialties are now in the top 25, with four in the top 15:

Nephrology/Kidney (#5)

Orthopedics (#12)

Cardiology and Heart Surgery (#13)

Urology (#15)

Diabetes and Endocrinology (#20)

Gastroenterology/Digestive Disorders (#25)

“Our Nephrology team once again led the way by ranking fifth in the nation. Six of our other specialties made substantial gains,” says Dr. Randall L. O’Donnell, President and CEO of Children’s Mercy. “We are doing extraordinary work and will continue to practice, teach and research ways to provide the best outcomes for families everywhere.”

This year, U.S. News surveyed more than 180 pediatric centers to gather clinical and operational data. This data was then combined with results from a reputational survey in which board-certified pediatric specialists representing the 10 areas were asked where they would send the sickest children in their specialty.

Founded in 1897, Children’s Mercy is one of the nation’s top pediatric medical centers. With not-for-profit hospitals in Missouri and Kansas, and numerous specialty clinics in both states, Children’s Mercy provides the highest level of care for children from birth through the age of 21. U.S. News & World Report has repeatedly ranked Children’s Mercy as one of “America's Best Children's Hospitals.” For the fourth time in a row, Children’s Mercy has achieved Magnet nursing designation, awarded to fewer than seven percent of all hospitals nationally, for excellence in quality care. Its faculty of more than 700 pediatric subspecialists and researchers across more than 40 subspecialties are actively involved in clinical care, pediatric research, and educating the next generation of pediatric subspecialists. Thanks to generous philanthropic and volunteer support, Children’s Mercy provides medical care to every child who passes through its doors, regardless of a family’s ability to pay. For more information about Children’s Mercy and its research, visit childrensmercy.org. For breaking news and videos, follow us on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

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]]>Cancer,Heart,Neonatology,Press ReleasesTue, 26 Jun 2018 15:00:00 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_facebookimage.jpg?10000Pediatric Transplant: Giving Kids the Gift of Life http://news.childrensmercy.org/pediatric-transplant-giving-kids-the-gift-of-life/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/pediatric-transplant-giving-kids-the-gift-of-life/Every 10 minutes, someone is added to the national transplant waiting list. Unfortunately, there are more people waiting for an organ than what’s available, and on average 20 people die each day waiting for their second chance at life.

Of those waiting, nearly 2,000 are children.

Kidney Transplant

Brian Navarro Dr. Bradley Warady

Many of the children on the waiting list are on dialysis and in need of a kidney.

“In the case of children, dialysis should be seen as the bridge to transplant; it's not the end-all therapy,” said Dr. Bradley Warady, Director, Division of Pediatric Nephrology at Children’s Mercy. “These kids are hooked up to a machine anywhere from three to seven days a week to sustain their lives until a new kidney becomes available.”

19-year-old Brian Navarro Raytown, Mo., knows firsthand what it’s like to be tethered to a dialysis machine. He received a kidney transplant last April, a year after he was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and was coming to the hospital three days a week for dialysis.

“My quality of life is so much better after my transplant. I have more energy, I don't feel sick and I can focus more at school now,” Brian said.

Not only was his transplant life-saving, it was life-changing for the entire family.

“It impacted my parents’ lives too, because I depended on them for transportation and some of my care.”

More than half the children on the kidney transplant waiting list and on dialysis will receive a kidney within one year after starting dialysis, and 40 percent of all pediatric kidney transplant recipients will receive a kidney from an adult living donor.

“Whenever possible, we prefer to give a child an adult organ, which gives the children the best possible chance for prolonged function of the kidney,” said Dr. Warady. “In addition, the life expectancy of the transplanted patient far exceeds that of the patient on prolonged dialysis.”

Kailyn was 18 years old when she received her transplant and waited more than a year before a compatible donor was found. She’s now 32.

“I feel fortunate every day that I can get up and go to work full-time, and be a relatively normal person. I was grateful when I was younger, but I think as I get older I’m even more thankful, because I realize how things could have gone another way.”

Vicki said seeing Kailyn as a thriving adult was “incredible.”

“We see kids who, 30 years ago, would have died because there was nothing we could do to help them,” said Vicki, who has been a transplant coordinator for most of her 42-year nursing career, 19 of them at Children’s Mercy. “Today, through the generosity of an organ donor, they get a transplant, go home, grow, play, and do the things a kid is supposed to do. We get wedding invitations and baby announcements from kids we’ve transplanted who grow up and have children. It makes all the nights we’re up all night worth it. It’s the big payoff in this job.”

Dr. Daniel said Kailyn is a good example of what organ donation can do.

“Our goal in working with kids is to make sure they grow up to be adults and have a good life, and that’s what we’re seeing with Kailyn," Dr. Daniel said. "Sometimes people need organ transplants later in life just to keep alive, but Kailyn’s transplantation gave her a future.”

Heart Transplant

Maggie Mae Gorrell Maggie's Family Stacy Reynolds

Children’s Mercy has performed 14 heart transplants since February 2015, and waiting for transplant day can be the hardest part for patients and families.

Right now, there are six patients on the heart transplant list, which includes 15-month-old Maggie Mae Gorrell. She’s been on the list since Oct. 10, 2017. Maggie’s mom says a new heart will mean she gets to have a life outside of the hospital.

“She won’t be attached to the machine that is keeping her alive, instead she’ll be with her sister, and maybe fly in her dad’s plane,” said Kristen Gorrell, Maggie’s mother. “The miracle of transplant means a real life, not a sick life.”

Stacy Reynolds, Heart Transplant APN, says people don’t realize how many children are waiting for organs and they often think of heart failure as an adult issue. She understands organ donation isn’t an easy decision for families to make, but it truly makes a difference.

“I want them to understand that, in the most horrible situation they could face, they have an opportunity to positively impact the life of another child,” Reynolds said.

Kristen added if Maggie doesn’t get her heart, they’ll donate her other organs to help someone else. “If you have to go through tragedy, why not have a glimmer of hope?”

Consider Organ Donation

Dr. Daniel encourages people to consider organ donation.

“There are thousands of people in the United States who need new organs, but can’t get them and it’s a shame. We need to think about how we can help our fellow human beings.”

You can become a living donor, or you can check the box on your driver’s license to donate your organs if something were to happen to you. Make sure to have a conversation with your family, so they know your desire to donate. One donor can save eight lives.

Also speak with your spouse about what you would do if anything were to happen to your child. Would you want your child to be an organ donor? It’s a difficult conversation, but one that’s easier to have in advance of a crisis and when a loved one is critically ill.

“For children who need a kidney, liver or heart transplant, these organs are truly a gift of life,” Dr. Warady said.

]]>Pediatric Surgery,Heart,Our Experts,Our StoriesWed, 25 Apr 2018 16:36:03 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_img-20180302-103321.jpg?10000KMBC-TV: Baby Hazel celebrating first birthday, and a healthy heart at Children's Mercyhttp://news.childrensmercy.org/kmbc-tv-baby-hazel-celebrating-first-birthday-and-a-healthy-heart-at-childrens-mercy/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/kmbc-tv-baby-hazel-celebrating-first-birthday-and-a-healthy-heart-at-childrens-mercy/A young girl name Hazel just turned a year old, but she's celebrating more than a birthday. She's celebrating a healthy heart.

Leigh Anna Moffet was 24 weeks pregnant with Hazel when she learned her daughter had two heart defects. From that moment on, a team of specialists at Children's Mercy started preparing for Hazel's arrival. Leigh Anna gave birth at Children's Mercy, so Hazel's lifesaving treatment could begin immediately, preparing the newborn for heart surgery.

On Tuesday, Hazel had an echocardiogram and it's evidence the surgery was a success. Dr. Amy Lay, Cardiologist at Children's Mercy, said the team was able to close the hole between the bottom chambers of the heart and fix the aorta, which is the main blood supply to the body.

Hazel will need follow up visits the rest of her life, but doctors say it's likely she won't need any other procedures.

Children with heart disease had significant differences in all the domains of frailty, which included weakness, slowness, height and weight, exhaustion and physical activity levels compared with children without the condition, according to a presentation at Cardiology 2018.

“We always knew subjectively that these kids will probably be slower, probably be weak, probably be tired more quickly, but we were surprised with how slower they were, how quickly they got tired and how much less activity they would do as compared to other kids,” Chaitanya Panchangam, MBBS, cardiology fellow at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, told Cardiology Today.

Frailty phenotype was measured using methods developed for children such as 6-minute walk test, hand grip strength, physical activity questionnaire and body measurements.

“Kids with all these chronic heart diseases like Fontan, heart failure or pulmonary hypertension, we all know they’re sick,” Panchangam said in an interview. “We don’t have a great tool that can assess for global frailty. That’s why we were interested in checking this tool to see first if we can even make some adjustments in the tool that was described … and adapt it to the pediatric population.”

]]>Heart,Research & Innovation,In The NewsFri, 23 Mar 2018 14:00:00 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_20140312-cmh-sonography-0055.jpg?10000Children's Mercy Junction City Celebrates Grand Openinghttp://news.childrensmercy.org/childrens-mercy-junction-city-celebrates-grand-opening/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/childrens-mercy-junction-city-celebrates-grand-opening/More than 100 people were on hand March 15, as Children’s Mercy Junction City celebrated its grand opening. Guests included donors, Children's Mercy patients and families, area government officials and Children's Mercy and Geary Community Hospital leaders.

"This opening is tremendous for us,” said Marshaun Butler, Vice President, Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas, and Outreach & Regional Practices as she addressed reporters. “It’s a huge milestone in which we are able to have a permanent presence and are able to expand our services. We know there are many children here in the community with critical needs, and this just allows them to stay closer to home to receive the care they need.”

During the program after the ribbon cutting ceremony, Butler was joined at the podium by Dr. Joe Stratton, CEO of Geary Community Hospital; Jo Stueve, Children's Mercy Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Jon and Renee Pachta, parents to Emily who has been a Children's Mercy cardiology patient for 14 years.

Recognition was given to all the donors who have worked to help make Children's Mercy Junction City possible, with special recognition to the Bramlage family, R2B4 Bramlage Foundation and Geary Community Health Foundation who led the charge in raising $2.5 million for the project.

After the program tours were offered of the newly constructed space.

The new 7,000 square foot clinic space is located in the lower level area at Geary Community Hospital and includes 12 exam rooms, two telemedicine rooms, a lab draw room, two nurses’ stations and a reception area.

Children’s Mercy physicians have seen cardiology and endocrine/diabetes patients in Junction City for several years and relocated to the new clinic space in February. Some of the new services that will be added first through telemedicine include allergy, asthma and immunology; neurology; pulmonology and urology.

]]>Heart,Philanthropy,In The NewsFri, 16 Mar 2018 16:50:56 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_cm-junction-city-600-for-web.jpg?10000Discover Nursing: Helping Nurses Make Bigger Changes for their Smallest Patientshttp://news.childrensmercy.org/discover-nursing-helping-nurses-make-bigger-changes-for-their-smallest-patients/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/discover-nursing-helping-nurses-make-bigger-changes-for-their-smallest-patients/Advances in technology are helping healthcare providers improve outcomes for patients of all ages. At the Ward Family Heart Center at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., using an inter-disciplinary team called CHAMP® (Cardiac High Acuity Monitoring Program), nurses like Lori Erickson, MSN, CPNP-PC, CHAMP clinical program manager, are saving lives of babies born with single ventricle heart disease who are in the critical inter-stage period between the first and second stages of surgery.

CHAMP provides families with a tablet PC that has a proprietary app installed to enable nearly-instantaneous in-home monitoring and to improve communication during this vulnerable time, while allowing the infants and their families to spend more time at home. We had the chance to speak with Lori about the program, the importance of technology in nursing, the future of patient care, and more.

Nursing Notes (NN): Can you share a little bit about your nursing background and what led you to your current position?

Lori Erickson: I have always been intrigued by the hemodynamic process and true strength of the infants with congenital heart disease. I started working as a single ventricle and fetal cardiology Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) position at Children’s Mercy in 2012, and transitioned to the CHAMP single ventricle APRN as both programs expanded in July 2017.

NN: Can you tell us about the development of CHAMP® and how you got involved?

Lori: The basis of CHAMP started from the concept of inter-stage home monitoring for infants with single ventricles care in the first year of life. CHAMP infants are at risk of sudden events, including death, at home in the first months of life, so this technology is on the forefront of care improvement. This program uses an application on a mobile device at home to transfer data to the inter-stage cardiac team in the hospital, leveraging cloud-based technology.

February is Heart Health Month, and it also marks three years since Children’s Mercy performed their first heart transplant.

Right now, seven children they treat are in need of a new heart.

Before 2015, if a baby in the Kansas City area was in need of a heart, the family would have to go to either St. Louis, Denver or Dallas. One family from Manhattan, KS is sharing their story to show the importance of the doctors work and raise awareness about how you can help.

When Colby was born in September, Cassie Schafer and her husband, Shad Schafer, headed home a happy family of four.

“We were home for close to a week before we noticed Colby got sick his temperature was really low. Mom checked it on a whim,” Shad Schafer said.

An 89-degree temperature and an emergency plane ride from Manhattan to Children’s Mercy is where their unexpected five-month journey began. The couple said the journey has taught them more about their little boy's heart than they ever thought they’d know.

Myocarditis is Colby’s disease. It’s is a long and tough road.

“That is when certain viruses can attack muscle of the heart and make it hard for it to pump,” said Dr. Aliessa Barnes. “I was recruited here to Children's Mercy to start the heart transplant program so that this hospital could offer that amazing service to the people of this area."

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is considered a disease of the adults, but it can also occur in children. It is known that three-to-five percent of children and adolescents have hypertension and although its effects are not as apparent in children, it has sequelae that will appear later in life. That is why it is very important for hypertension to be identified and managed as early as possible.

The causes of high blood pressure in children vary; behavioral/environmental, genetic and physical factors can cause hypertension. Hypertension can be idiopathic or primary, meaning that it occurs with no identifiable cause, or it can be secondary, meaning that it is associated with some type of disease usually renal (from the kidneys), cardiac or endocrine.

Hypertension in children should be taken seriously since it gradually causes changes in the heart and the vessels of the body. In the majority of cases it has no symptoms and is “silent” thus it is hard to be detect. Most children with hypertension will continue to have high blood pressure as adults with an increase in heart disease and stroke.

Diagnosing Hypertension in Children

Early diagnosis is key, and as important it is to take your child for a wellness visit once a year, it is equally important to have their blood pressure checked especially when they are three years or older. Children with known history of renal or cardiac disease should have their blood pressure taken more often.

It important to have your child’s blood pressure measured properly in order to avoid falsely high blood pressure readings. To obtain a proper reading, your child needs to be calm for a few minutes before the test in done; it's also important to have a proper blood pressure cuff used. Both those facts are known to health care providers that take care of children, but are often overlooked when blood pressure is taken by providers who do not care for children.

Another factor that could impact the outcome of your child’s reading is what is called white-coat hypertension. This is when your child’s blood pressure reading becomes elevated at the doctor’s office, but is otherwise normal when they’re in another setting i.e. at school when the blood pressure is taken by the school nurse, a person familiar and less threatening to them. This high reading is related to the anxiety a child has during visit to the doctor.

If a blood pressure measurement is high, it should be measured at a later time, since it takes at least three elevated measurements before someone is suspected to have hypertension. Once the diagnosis is confirmed it is important to find the reason that causes the high blood pressure.

What Causes Hypertension

Idiopathic or Primary Hypertension

It is the most common type in which the child has high blood pressure, but there is no identifiable medical condition that it can be attributed to. A considerable number of children and adolescents have idiopathic hypertension and most of them are overweight or obese and lead a sedentary life. Modifications in lifestyle such as a healthier, more balanced diet including less processed foods and salt, as well as increase in physical activity, have been shown to decrease blood pressure and in some cases even result in its normalization.

Making these lifestyle changes is very important because adolescents who are obese and hypertensive have a higher chance of being obese and hypertensive later on in life, a fact that increases their risk for premature cardiovascular disease.

Secondary Hypertension

Secondary hypertension is the result of the presence of another disease, most commonly kidney disease, endocrine or metabolic, as well as cardiac disease or other rare systemic illnesses. Another factor frequently ignored is medication that a child is taking. Medications prescribed for ADHD, some antidepressants and amphetamines can all elevate blood pressure, so can the increased consumption of caffeinated or energy drinks. Finding the underlying cause of hypertension is very important, that is why a thorough evaluation is needed with a detailed physical examination, as well as consideration of personal, family and social history of the child. This will be the appropriate screen for excluding an underlying disease be it renal, cardiac or otherwise; it will also lead to a further targeted evaluation with additional tests, as well as to appropriate therapy if such conditions are discovered.

Treating Hypertension

Hypertension is a disease that can be managed successfully. In cases of idiopathic hypertension lifestyle modifications can be very effective. Healthy diet including a reasonable amount of salt, and well-balanced meals – plate model - containing two quarter vegetables, one quarter protein and one quarter carbohydrates. A lot of starches and sugar in the diet leads to obesity and obesity leads to high blood pressure. Weight loss and a good diet combined with increased physical activities (at least three-to-five times a week and for at least half hour at a time), and decreased screen-time will decrease high blood pressure measurements in the majority of cases.

In cases of secondary hypertension addressing the main problem that causes the high blood pressure might be effective, but in some cases additional medical treatment might be needed. Management of these patients needs to be in specialty clinics; a multi-disciplinary care team will ensure adequate management.

Overall, the best preventative medicine is having annual well-child physical exams and avoiding bad habits and factors that will make our children to become overweight or obese. Healthy habits go along with a healthy child, and a healthy child guarantees a healthy adult.

]]>Heart,Our Experts,Our StoriesThu, 22 Feb 2018 16:35:47 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_3812874659-b1df5ff1e8-b.jpg?10000Heart Smart Healthy Tips: shopping listhttp://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-smart-healthy-tips-shopping-list/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-smart-healthy-tips-shopping-list/One of the easiest ways to avoid unhealthy snacks is to simply not bring them into your house. Preparing a good shopping list and sticking to it can help. We’ve prepared the list below to help you when choosing heart healthy options the next time you head to the grocery store.

]]>Heart,Health & Nutrition,Our StoriesWed, 21 Feb 2018 17:07:10 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_healthyshoppinglist.jpg?10000Heart Smart Healthy Tips: beware of added sugarshttp://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-smart-healthy-tips-beware-of-added-sugars/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-smart-healthy-tips-beware-of-added-sugars/Not all sugar is created equal. Fruits, vegetables and milk all have natural sugars, which help provide essential nutrients to the body. Then there’s foods with “added sugars,” which are sugars and syrups added to your favorite foods or drinks when they’re processed or prepared. These are the sugars you need to watch out for.

Diets high in added sugars can lead to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. Common culprits include soda, sports drinks and juices. However, some foods with added sugars are hard to spot and even marketed as "healthy" options, like granola bars, yogurt, reduced-fat salad dressings or even canned beans.

Just like anything, the foods below are fine in moderation, but be sure to watch serving sizes and resist thinking of them as insignificant amounts of sugar and calories.

]]>Heart,Health & Nutrition,Our StoriesWed, 14 Feb 2018 18:38:34 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_sugar.jpg?10000Heart Smart Healthy Tips: Breakfast and Snackshttp://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-smart-healthy-tips-breakfast-and-snacks/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-smart-healthy-tips-breakfast-and-snacks/Breakfast is called the most important meal of the day. Studies have shown that when your child eats a healthy and nutritious breakfast it can help improve their school performance, brain function and overall wellness. This tip also holds true for adults.

Eating healthy food is also one of the best ways to keep your heart healthy, so it’s important to have healthy snacks on hand when refueling between meals.

There are several healthy foods you can incorporate into breakfast and snack routines. Here are several heart healthy choices.

Kelly Manz’s passion for helping babies with congenital heart disease, or CHD, is taking her to the Super Bowl.

Manz, a resident of Lee’s Summit, started a nonprofit called CHD Babies after her daughter, Chloe, was born with a heart defect in November 2008.

She’s championed a change in Missouri state law and raised nearly $85,000 through the Run for Little Hearts event she’s organized since 2014.

When she started a blog that became a full-blown website that spawned the nonprofit and gave rise to the annual charity race shortly after Chloe’s birth, Manz had no way of knowing it would lead her to the pinnacle of North American sports Feb. 4 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

But she’s thrilled for the opportunity.

“It’s an honor,” Manz said. “It really is. I try my best to raise as much awareness as I can. I’m very passionate about it — I mean, every single day. I finally found something I feel like I was meant to do, like my calling.”

After three years, teens with severe obesity who underwent stomach reduction surgery to lose weight also significantly improved their heart health.

A study published in Pediatrics shows that blood pressure, cholesterol, inflammation and insulin levels all improved, particularly among those who lost the most weight.

"The potential impact of such risk reduction translates into a reduced likelihood of developing significant heart disease later in life, including atherosclerosis, heart failure and stroke," says study author Marc Michalsky, surgical director of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, in an email. "This study serves to reinforce the benefits of bariatric surgery as a safe and effective treatment strategy that should be considered sooner rather than later."

Younger adolescents in the study showed bigger improvements in their cholesterol and inflammation levels than the older teens. Even participants who had normal-range blood pressure, triglycerides or cholesterol levels before surgery saw improved measures.

Nearly a third of all children and teens are overweight or obese in the US, and an estimated 4 to 7 percent have severe obesity. The greater a person's obesity, the greater their risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and organ damage.

The findings are important because many of the participants in this study likely already had some level of cardiac damage, such as thickened arteries or heart walls, says Geetha Raghuveer, a pediatric cardiologist at Children's Mercy Kansas City in Missouri who was not involved in the study.

"If you have very high blood pressure or lipids [cholesterol] or diabetes, you do see cardiovascular changes even at a very young age," Raghuveer says. "They may not be having a heart attack or stroke in their teens and 20s, but they're closer to having those in their 30s and 40s."

]]>Pediatric Surgery,Heart,In The NewsMon, 15 Jan 2018 18:23:00 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_bariatricsurgery-nprstory.jpg?10000For the third straight year, Children's Mercy Ranks in all 10 Specialties by U.S. News & World Reporthttp://news.childrensmercy.org/for-the-third-straight-year-childrens-mercy-ranks-in-all-10-specialties-by-us-news--world-report/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/for-the-third-straight-year-childrens-mercy-ranks-in-all-10-specialties-by-us-news--world-report/For the third straight year, and the fifth time in the last seven years, Children’s Mercy is once again recognized as one of the top pediatric hospitals in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report’s 2017-18 “Best Children’s Hospitals” report. Children’s Mercy is listed among the best in the nation in all 10 pediatric specialties included in the survey.

This year, U.S. News surveyed more than 180 pediatric centers to gather clinical and operational data. This data was then combined with results from a reputational survey in which board-certified pediatric specialists representing the 10 areas were asked where they would send the sickest children in their specialty.

“Being listed again this year among the nation’s best - in all 10 specialties – is an achievement that clearly shows that the Kansas City region has one of the best children’s hospitals anywhere,” says Dr. Randall L. O’Donnell, President and CEO of Children’s Mercy. “For 120 years our pediatric specialists and pediatric nurses have been dedicated to finding answers for children and their families. But I also believe that after all that time, we’re just getting started. So much more can be done as we continue to practice, teach and especially to research ways to provide the best outcomes for patients in our area and all around the world.”

]]>Press Releases,Cancer,Heart,NeonatologyTue, 27 Jun 2017 18:59:56 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_2017usnwrnewsroom.jpg?10000Geary Community Hospital Announces Agreement with Children's Mercyhttp://news.childrensmercy.org/geary-community-hospital-announces-agreement-with-childrens-mercy/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/geary-community-hospital-announces-agreement-with-childrens-mercy/Geary Community Hospital is pleased to announce it will be working with Children’s Mercy Kansas City to establish a pediatric specialty clinic on the GCH campus in Junction City.

“We are excited to take another step forward by formally announcing our plans to establish a pediatric specialty clinic at GCH,” said Dr. Joe Stratton, Chief Executive Officer. “This project will benefit the children and families of Geary County and the surrounding Flint Hills region.”

The 7,000 square foot clinic space will be located in the lower level area at GCH and include twelve exam rooms, three dictation pods, two treatment rooms, height/weight rooms, restrooms, a nurses station, and reception area.

Children’s Mercy physicians have seen cardiology and endocrine/diabetes patients in Junction City for several years.

“Growing in Junction City has been a priority for Children’s Mercy. Thanks to the generous support of donors, we are able to begin growing sooner than anticipated. Some of the new services we will be adding first through telemedicine potentially include developmental and behavioral services, gastroenterology, neurology and rheumatology,” said Dr. Stacy Doyle, Vice President, Ambulatory Services at Children’s Mercy.

“Children’s Mercy specialists have traveled to the Junction City area for many years and the need for a more substantial and permanent presence has become clear,” said Stratton. “Our population of children has grown and the demand for services has increased the last few years. The establishment of additional clinics here at GCH will elevate the level of pediatric specialty expertise and enhance the continuum of pediatric healthcare available to children locally and in this region of the state.”

The four major project partners are Children’s Mercy Kansas City, Geary Community Hospital, the R2B4 Bramlage Family Foundation and the Geary Community Healthcare Foundation. “The R2B4 Bramlage Family Foundation and Geary Community Healthcare Foundation have been committed to making lives better for kids and families in Junction City for many years,” said Stratton. “Their support brings an opportunity for us to really move forward and provide new services to the area that are not available anywhere in the region.”

Construction on the project will begin in the next few weeks with a projected completion date of spring, 2018.

About Children’s Mercy Kansas City

Founded in 1897, Children’s Mercy is one of the nation’s top pediatric medical centers. With not-for-profit hospitals in Missouri and Kansas, and numerous specialty clinics in both states, Children’s Mercy provides the highest level of care for children from birth through the age of 21. U.S. News & World Report has repeatedly ranked Children’s Mercy as one of “America's Best Children's Hospitals.” For the fourth time in a row, Children’s Mercy has achieved Magnet nursing designation, awarded to fewer than seven percent of all hospitals nationally, for excellence in quality care. Its faculty of more than 700 pediatric subspecialists and researchers across more than 40 subspecialties are actively involved in clinical care, pediatric research, and educating the next generation of pediatric subspecialists. Thanks to generous philanthropic and volunteer support, Children’s Mercy provides medical care to every child who passes through its doors, regardless of a family’s ability to pay. For more information about Children’s Mercy and its research, visit childrensmercy.org. For breaking news and videos, follow us on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

]]>Press Releases,Heart,PhilanthropyFri, 09 Jun 2017 22:00:00 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_floralshotedited.jpg?10000Fox 4: Family surprised with vehicle to help get daughter to and from Children's Mercyhttp://news.childrensmercy.org/fox-4-family-surprised-with-vehicle-to-help-get-daughter-to-and-from-childrens-mercy/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/fox-4-family-surprised-with-vehicle-to-help-get-daughter-to-and-from-childrens-mercy/Local organization Cars 4 Heroes, along with a generous donor, changed the life a veteran's family Monday.

When the veteran's wife arrived at Children's Mercy, along with her two-year-old who was in need of an IV treatment, they were greeted by more than doctors and nurses.

Car Santa Terry Franz was there waiting with a van that had their name on it.

The mom of three was shocked to hear the van was for her.

"We've been trying for months to figure out how we are going to get here because mom's car is about to break down," she said. "Now we don't have to worry about getting here when we do get our heart."

She said she has to drive more than one hour each way to the hospital each week so her daughter Arabella can go to cardiology appointments.

The 16-month-old is hooked to machines, as Amanda does whatever she can to stay strong for Rohen and his older sister.

“We definitely went into survival mode,” she said.

Amanda walks into Children's Mercy day after day, pulling herself together for her family.

“You don't realize because you`re always being so strong, you walk in every day and be strong because that`s what you do as a mom. You walk in and do it, and you don't do it because you want to, you do it because you have to,” she said.

But a therapist who got to know the Reeves family occasionally forces Amanda to stop being strong and start being human, a mom who`s stressed and scared.

“Jami she's just been there since day one,” said Reeves. “We kind of had a joke that she was the one who triggered me to cry, every time she walked in, I'd always cry about something.”

Jami is part of the THRIVE program at Children's Mercy. It focuses on the psycho-social needs of patients, their family members, and even the staff members that treat these young patients.

“Parents of children with congenital heart disease can experience post-traumatic stress symptoms,” said Jami .

Siblings often experience anxiety or depression, and staff members can also experience psychological distress based on their high-stress jobs to keep children alive. The THRIVE program includes a team of social workers and psychologists who are committed to helping everyone involved with their emotional health for years to come.

"They can contact us at any time following their admission,” said Gross Toalson. “Families down the road can just call or say I need resources, or I need therapy for my child`s siblings.”

It's a service Amanda didn't even realize she needed until she discovered that she can't be strong in this difficult time unless she takes care of herself too.

]]>In The News,HeartThu, 30 Mar 2017 20:02:04 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_rohenampamanda.jpg?10000Fox 4: Children's Mercy checklist for infants with cardiac concerns becomes a national resourcehttp://news.childrensmercy.org/fox-4-childrens-mercy-checklist-for-infants-with-cardiac-concerns-becomes-a-national-resource/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/fox-4-childrens-mercy-checklist-for-infants-with-cardiac-concerns-becomes-a-national-resource/When parents learn their infant has a heart defect, it can be overwhelmingly emotional or just overwhelming, and things can get lost in the shuffle.

Children's Mercy created a simple checklist to solve that problem -- and it's become a national resource.

Ashlie and Mitchell Mason know they're lucky to have Cohen-- a healthy, smiley 4-month old. Cohen was born with a hypoplastic left heart, meaning the left side of his heart didn't form correctly. But luckily, his condition was caught when Ashlie was only 20 weeks along.

The team at Children's Mercy watched Ashlie's pregnancy carefully after the Mason's older son, Parker, was born with a heart defect as well. So when Cohen was born, he was born in the fetal health center at Children's Mercy, where doctors could instantly start treating him.

“It was definitely reassuring that everyone who was taking care of him also took care of me throughout my pregnancy, so they saw me once a month from 20 weeks on, and so it was a lot of familiar faces and a lot of people we had confidence in, and we weren`t thrown into it like we were with Parker,” Ashlie explained.

They were also prepared because of a simple checklist that covers a very complicated issue: fetal and infant cardiac care. This checklist was created by Dr. Tara Swanson, with the help of other cardiac experts at the hospital. It ensures parents are prepared for all the potential challenges heart issues come with.

“We have parents coming back in different stages of grieving, and different stages of the education and I wanted to make certain that every one of them had a consistent message that we`d had an opportunity to discuss all the complications that could happen,” Dr. Swanson said.

The early detection of a heart complication can be devastating for a family, so the checklist makes sure all the bases are covered - meaning by the time the baby arrives - parents aren't scrambling as much to find answers.

“They already know the medical terminology, they know what to expect, and so they're already part of the team,” Dr. Swanson said. “Rather than being at the bedside crying that first day.”

The checklist has made such a difference, that Dr. Swanson's been asked to share it with other hospitals.

"We share shamelessly,” she said.

Because if it saves a life or helps a family - in any hospital - Dr. Swanson knows the list is a success.

]]>Heart,In The NewsMon, 13 Mar 2017 15:54:57 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_20140312-cmh-sonography-0132.jpg?10000Fox 4: Metro boy with heart defect celebrates birthday by gathering toys for Children’s Mercyhttp://news.childrensmercy.org/fox-4-metro-boy-with-heart-defect-celebrates-birthday-by-gathering-toys-for-childrens-mercy/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/fox-4-metro-boy-with-heart-defect-celebrates-birthday-by-gathering-toys-for-childrens-mercy/At just the age of 5, a metro boy has gone through adoption and three open heart surgeries, and living with only half of a heart. But instead of complaining, he's helping other kids who are going through the same struggles.

Bryson Huff is living with a serious medical condition, but you'd never know it. Just ask him how he's feeling.

"Happy!" Bryson said.

He's a normal 5-year-old, who loves to color and play video games, but inside of him is half of a heart working overtime, and a rocky road here many will never have to experience.

"He was there without anybody. We decided we wanted to adopt and he came home when he was 7 weeks old," Bryson's Mom Beth Huff said.

Bryson was put up for adoption by his biological mom after she gave birth. He was born with a defect that stopped the left side of his heart from developing.

"Heartbroken. It's amazing to see a kid who is just by himself in the hospital. There was no one else in the room with him, just him by himself," Bryson's dad Brian Huff said.

The metro family welcomed him with open arms. Together they have seen him through three open heart surgeries. Doctors didn't think he would make it to age 5, but here he is celebrating his 5th year.

"It's just always so amazing to see him play and enjoy life. We're just so glad he's had a lot more good days than bad days," Beth said.

Instead of asking for new toys for himself, Bryson asked that family and friends donate toys to kids at Children's Mercy Hospital. Little boys and girls just like him, who need a reason to smile.

"You know what's going on inside of him, but he's overcome it."

It is possible that Bryson will have to have a heart transplant, but for now he is living life as a normal 5-year-old.

]]>Heart,Philanthropy,In The NewsTue, 28 Feb 2017 14:57:28 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_022817brysonhorizontal.png?10000Heart Month Highlights: Preventive cardiologist chairs the AHA scientific statement on second-hand smokehttp://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-month-highlights-preventive-cardiologist-chairs-the-aha-scientific-statement-on-second-hand-smoke/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-month-highlights-preventive-cardiologist-chairs-the-aha-scientific-statement-on-second-hand-smoke/Dr. Geetha Raghuveer and Dr. David White, both with the Children's Mercy Preventive Cardiology Clinic, convened an international panel of experts to develop the American Heart Association Scientific Statement on the Cardiovascular Consequences of Childhood Second-hand Tobacco Smoke Exposure: Prevailing Evidence, Burden, and Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities. The statement was published in the September 2016 issue of Circulation.

"Our committee included researchers who have spent a lifetime looking at the cardiovascular risks of second-hand or cigarette smoke," Dr. Raghuveer said. Evidence points early and significant damage to the blood vessels in children who have been exposed to cigarette smoke. It is thus important to educate, counsel and support families to decrease these ill-effects.

Children remain vulnerable as they have little control over their environments, minority children and children from low socio-economic backgrounds are especially affected.

"There is some evidence second-hand smoke is even more damaging than smoking because it is unfiltered," Dr. White added. Dr. Raghuveer serves as Vice Char of the Atherosclerosis, Hypertension, Obesity in the Youth Committee of the AHA whose mission is to advance the science related to recognition and treatment of atherosclerosis, hypertension and obesity in children.

]]>Heart,Our Experts,Our StoriesThu, 23 Feb 2017 23:46:24 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_gr7f0045.jpg?10000Children's Mercy Kansas City honored as recipient of the 2017 Microsoft Health Innovation Awardshttp://news.childrensmercy.org/childrens-mercy-kansas-city-honored-as-recipient-of-the-2017-microsoft-health-innovation-awards/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/childrens-mercy-kansas-city-honored-as-recipient-of-the-2017-microsoft-health-innovation-awards/Children’s Mercy Kansas City today announced it has been named a recipient of Microsoft Corp.’s 2017 Health Innovation Awards.

The awards, which were announced at the 2017 HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida, recognize health organizations and their technology solution partners for using Microsoft devices and services in innovative ways that help engage patients, empower care teams, optimize clinical and operational effectiveness, and transform the care continuum. The 2017 winners are transforming the industry by creating breakthrough solutions that empower health and life sciences organizations, while meeting global, local and industry-specific compliance and security standards.

Children's Mercy received the Health Innovation Award for its Cardiac High Acuity Monitoring Program (CHAMP). Nearly 2,000 babies are born each year with congenital heart disease consisting of a single ventricle. CHAMP combines traditional single-ventricle home monitoring, a service where nurse coordinators provide triage at home for highly fragile infants, with an innovative new app developed by the Ward Family Heart Center team at Children’s Mercy. CHAMP consists of a Microsoft Surface 3 tablet with the Windows 10 operating system, connected to a database that sits in the Microsoft Cloud. Parents enter patient information into CHAMP, which transfers home monitoring data and videos in near real-time to the CHAMP home monitoring care team. Once entered into the CHAMP web portal, the data is evaluated through algorithms and can trigger instant alerts to the team for further evaluation of each single-ventricle child. Before the app and tablet were introduced, parents would check various vital signs at home, such as heartrate, weight and oxygen saturation, that are important indicators of cardiac health, and then it was up to them to provide that information to the hospital each week over the phone. Otherwise nurses would try to track down the parents to find out if they were concerned about anything.

Nationally, around 1 in 5 babies with single-ventricle heart disease, such as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, will not survive the time period at home between the first surgery and second surgeries, known as the interstage period. Since Children’s Mercy started using the CHAMP app in March 2014, none of its 62 single-ventricle patients have died during that interstage period. Today, 55 U.S. sites, representing nearly 80 percent of all centers that perform single-ventricle heart surgery on infants, and eight international sites have expressed interest in using CHAMP.

“We’re extremely honored to have Microsoft and HIMSS celebrate CHAMP’s early success in 8 states, and this Health Innovation Award reinforces our goal to build a system that will evolve and become more intelligent over time,” said Dr. Girish Shirali, co-director of the Ward Family Heart Center at Children’s Mercy. “With more sophisticated analytics, we hope to find ways to help us treat babies quicker and even avoid hospitalization altogether.”

The Ward Family Heart Center at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, one of the top pediatric cardiology and heart surgery programs in the nation, performs nearly 450 cardiac surgical procedures, provides 15,700 outpatient visits and 18,000 echocardiograms, and performs catheterization and electrophysiology procedures on more than 500 patients annually. The Heart Center’s outcomes regularly outperform the combined averages of the 114 North American children’s hospitals contributing to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons National Congenital Heart Surgery Database. Through innovative research, the Ward Family Heart Center is at the forefront of improving care and quality of life for children with congenital and acquired heart disease.

Nominations were submitted by health providers, payers, pharmaceutical and life science organizations, and public and private health institutions across the world for applying Microsoft technology to create transformative and highly-effective innovations. An esteemed panel of industry experts selected this year’s winners based on how their innovation represents a forward-thinking development or implementation of a solution that is delivering groundbreaking results and producing better health outcomes for more people. Recipients will be highlighted on the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/healthinnovationawards and on the Microsoft in Health blog at https://enterprise.microsoft.com/en-us/industries/health/?post_type=articles.

About Children’s Mercy Kansas City

Founded in 1897, Children’s Mercy is one of the nation’s top pediatric medical centers. With not-for-profit hospitals in Missouri and Kansas, and numerous specialty clinics in both states, Children’s Mercy provides the highest level of care for children from birth through the age of 21. U.S. News & World Report has repeatedly ranked Children’s Mercy as one of “America's Best Children's Hospitals.” For the fourth time in a row, Children’s Mercy has achieved Magnet nursing designation, awarded to fewer than seven percent of all hospitals nationally, for excellence in quality care. Its faculty of more than 700 pediatric subspecialists and researchers across more than 40 subspecialties are actively involved in clinical care, pediatric research, and educating the next generation of pediatric subspecialists. Thanks to generous philanthropic and volunteer support, Children’s Mercy provides medical care to every child who passes through its doors, regardless of a family’s ability to pay. For more information about Children’s Mercy and its research, visit childrensmercy.org. For breaking news and videos, follow us on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

]]>Heart,Research,Press ReleasesTue, 21 Feb 2017 19:15:00 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_img-1510.jpg?10000KMBC 9: 'Inside Pediatrics' heart transplant patient is all grown uphttp://news.childrensmercy.org/kmbc-9-inside-pediatrics-heart-transplant-patient-is-all-grown-up/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/kmbc-9-inside-pediatrics-heart-transplant-patient-is-all-grown-up/You may remember Sawyerand her family from last February's Inside Pediatrics heart special. She was born with aheartdisease and needed a transplant.

Her heart was failing and she needed constant meditation through an IV.

"It is devastating. That does not even describe how awful it was," Sawyer's mother, Melissa, said.

"25% of patients who are put on a wait list for a heart actually die before a heart becomes available," said Dr. Aliessa Barnes. Dr. Barnes is the Medical Director of Pediatric Heart Failure and Transplantation at Children's Mercy.

After a long 18 months, the family received a miracle. Sawyer received her gift of life on December 21, 2015.

"You don't wish for somebody to lose their life, but you wish that they honor that life. They choose life after death," Melissa said.

One family's choice to turn their devastation into another family's joy is why Sawyer is alive today.

"It takes a lot of courage to lose a child and to still choose life and without them, my daughter would not be alive," Melissa said.

Sawyer now has no limitations. She is a healthy, happy, energetic little girl. She turns three in April.

]]>Heart,In The NewsTue, 21 Feb 2017 16:28:11 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_sawyerthennow.jpg?10000Heart Month Highlights: Children's Mercy among the first hospitals to participate in national STS public reporting of outcomeshttp://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-month-highlights-childrens-mercy-among-the-first-hospitals-to-participate-in-national-sts-public-reporting-of-outcomes/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-month-highlights-childrens-mercy-among-the-first-hospitals-to-participate-in-national-sts-public-reporting-of-outcomes/Children's Mercy was one of the first pediatric cardiac surgery programs in the nation to voluntarily share surgical outcomes with the public via the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' (STS) website.

"That level of transparency is critical to quality improvement for patients, families and staff, as well as for pediatric heart surgery programs nationwide," Dr. James O'Brien said. Dr. O'Brien is the Co-Director of the Ward Family Heart Center and Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Children's Mercy.

Dr. O'Brien is a member of the Society's Congenital Heart Disease Database Task Force, as well as one of two auditors for the STS database. Today, of the approximately 120 pediatric heart surgery programs belonging to the database, about half voluntarily share data publicly.

"At Children's Mercy, we have been early adopters of transparency," Dr. O'Brien said. "By evaluating this objective information, we have improved the care we provide patients and their families, helping us rank among the top programs in the country."

"Thanks to the STS database, everyone's outcomes have imrpoved, resulting in better patient care across the board," Dr. O'Brien said.

]]>Heart,Our StoriesFri, 17 Feb 2017 20:19:29 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_or-gr146.jpg?10000Heart Month Highlights: Heart failure and transplant program first to join international registryhttp://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-month-highlights-heart-failure-and-transplant-program-first-to-join-international-registry/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/heart-month-highlights-heart-failure-and-transplant-program-first-to-join-international-registry/The Children's Mercy Heart Failure and Transplant Program was the first approved to join the International Pediatric Heart Failure Registry, a collaborative database that can be used to study important questions facing this patient population.

"We believe participation in this registry is the best way to reach the volume of patients necessary to scientifically investigate pediatric transplant and heart failure issues," Dr. Aliessa Barnes said. Dr. Barnes is the Medical Director of Cardiac Transplantation for the Ward Family Heart Center at Children's Mercy.

The Children's Mercy program also is a member of the ventricular assist device database, PEDIMACS, and is an active member of the International Pediatric Heart Transplant Study. Dr. Barnes just completed a term on the Board of Directors for the International Pediatric Heart Transplant Study/Foundation. She and her colleague, Brian Birnbaum, MD, are both beginning important prospective trials for new investigational medicines.

In addition to participating in research to expand the field, the heart failure program is going to be piloting an adapted version of the Cardiac High Acuity Monitoring Program (CHAMP) application applying the PC tablet to track data on critical patients waiting for heart transplantation at home. The application will track clinical, imaging and laboratory data allowing real-time trending and interventions to decrease clinic visits, hospitalizations and complications.

]]>Heart,Our StoriesFri, 10 Feb 2017 22:12:09 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_sawyer-byrne-ip-6resize.jpg?10000Using teamwork to improve diagnosis of fetal heart defectshttp://news.childrensmercy.org/using-teamwork-to-improve-diagnosis-of-fetal-heart-defects/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/using-teamwork-to-improve-diagnosis-of-fetal-heart-defects/Unique checklist helps keep families from feeling overwhelmed Though estimates vary, according to a study published in the journal Prenatal Diagnosis from the Centers for Disease Control which focused on mothers of babies with congenital heart defects, only 15 percent of women reported they first learned about their infant’s condition prenatally.

At Children’s Mercy, not only is the goal to improve prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart defects, but to provide the expertise, counseling and state-of-the-art care necessary to support these children and their families prenatally and beyond.

“When I started at Children’s Mercy, less than one-third of infants with congenital heart defects were diagnosed prior to birth,” said Tara Swanson, MD, Director of Fetal Cardiology. “Now that number is up to more than 50 percent overall, with more than 80 percent of the most severe cardiac anomalies being detected prenatally.

Prenatal collaboration

Though many children’s hospitals have fetal cardiology programs, few are in the unique position of the Fetal Cardiac Clinic at Children’s Mercy.

“The Fetal Cardiac Clinic is part of a robust interdisciplinary team that collaborates with the Elizabeth J. Ferrell Fetal Health Center,” Dr. Swanson explained. In fact, Children’s Mercy is one of the few freestanding children’s hospitals in the United States that provides special care delivery services for mothers carrying a fetus with congenital defects.

Since its opening, the Fetal Health Center, has consulted with more than 1,000 families and has delivered more than 500 infants needing specialized care in the newborn period. Approximately 50 percent of these consults have been for a cardiac diagnosis.

To serve this volume of patients, the Fetal Cardiac Clinic now includes six physician subspecialists, four dedicated fetal cardiac sonographers, two nurse coordinators and one nurse practitioner. They see patients five days a week.

Another unique feature of the Children’s Mercy program is that the very sickest babies can be delivered in the cardiac operating room or catheterization laboratory and receive an emergent cardiac intervention in the first few minutes of life if necessary.

Fetal Cardiology Checklist

Because fetal cardiology is part of an interdisciplinary team devoted to the child, the team provides integrated counseling when a family’s fetus is diagnosed with a congenital heart defect prenatally. In addition to a fetal cardiologist, team members include a neonatologist, social worker, genetic counselor, nurses, surgery and palliative care providers. The team reviews the baby’s diagnosis and treatment options with the family.

“Prenatal counseling brings all the appropriate specialists to the table, improving communication between the team and family,” Dr. Swanson said. “We do the very best job we can to prepare families for life with a child who has a congenital heart defect. We don’t want them to be overwhelmed, but there is so much to tell them. We discuss everything from breastfeeding to visitation in the NICU to how this may impact their finances and relationships.”

To be certain the team addresses each appropriate concern, the nurse coordinators maintain a fetal checklist, a record of everything the team discusses with the family. After Dr. Swanson shared the checklist at a national conference, it became widely requested by other fetal cardiology and counseling programs across the nation.

“The checklist is a tool we developed and use at Children’s Mercy,” Dr. Swanson said. Other programs are welcome to download a copy and use it. Even the national Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative (NPC-QIC), a group of parents and providers who are working to improve outcomes for children with heart defects, used the checklist as an example as they work to develop their own checklist.

Furthering quality fetal cardiac care

To ensure continued quality improvement, the Fetal Cardiac Clinic is involved in collecting and analyzing data to determine outcomes for children diagnosed prenatally and delivered at Children’s Mercy, versus children delivered elsewhere and transferred postnatally to Children’s Mercy for cardiac care.

The clinic also is in the early stages of working with the hospital’s Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine, using whole genome sequencing to determine if there are any genetic factors connected to hypoplastic left heart syndrome. To improve prenatal diagnosis throughout the region, the clinic hosts an annual Fetal Cardiology Symposium aimed at educating area obstetrics sonographers in how to screen for heart defects. The clinic also offers sonographers the opportunity to shadow the Fetal Cardiac Clinic team, helping them become more adept at detecting complex cardiac defects.

And, fetal cardiology has expanded to western Kansas, making this subspecialty available to patients at the Children’s Mercy Wichita Clinic.

]]>Heart,Neonatology,Our StoriesMon, 06 Feb 2017 16:18:32 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_20140312-cmh-sonography-0055.jpg?10000KSHB 41: Kansas City organ donation at 'crisis' levelhttp://news.childrensmercy.org/kshb-41-kansas-city-organ-donation-at-crisis-level/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/kshb-41-kansas-city-organ-donation-at-crisis-level/Organ donation around the metro is needed now more than everMore than 600 people are in Kansas City metro hospitals awaiting life-saving organ transplants. One hundred of those on average each year do not live to receive the organ.

“I would describe it as a crisis actually,” said St. Luke’s Hospital’s liver transplant director Dr. Eddie Island.

A new person is added to an organ wait list every 10 minutes nationally, but only 48 percent of U.S. adults have signed up to be a donor. The supply is increasingly not meeting the need.

You can become an organ donor at organdonor.gov.

Amanda Reeves advocated for her 14-month-old son, Rowen, who is in need of a new heart at Children's Mercy. He is one of 33 patients at Children's Mercy waiting for a life-saving organ transplant.

]]>Heart,In The NewsThu, 26 Jan 2017 19:36:27 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_organdonation.jpg?10000KC Business Journal's Year in Review: Biggest biotech breakthroughshttp://news.childrensmercy.org/kcbjs-year-in-review-biggest-biotech-breakthroughs/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/kcbjs-year-in-review-biggest-biotech-breakthroughs/CHAMP app lets parents monitor single-ventricle patients' condition with a tabletSeveral Kansas City researchers made strides in 2016, ranging from taking their first product to market to making a key discovery toward a new cure. From among the area's plethora of pharmaceutical companies, startups, academic research and new technologies, Kansas City continued to grow its reputation for life sciences offerings.

Dr. Girish Shirali collaborated with the hospital's IT team in 2014 to develop the platform, which lets parents monitor their child's condition with a tablet and share information digitally with physicians. Most babies with single-ventricle heart disease face a 20 percent mortality rate between their first and second surgery, but since launching the program two years ago, Children's Mercy has seen zero deaths. With these outcomes, the program received several grants to expand the tech to other children's hospitals across the U.S.

]]>Heart,In The NewsMon, 02 Jan 2017 16:30:00 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_champ-006.jpg?10000Microsoft blog: To best monitor kids' health at home, parents become partners http://news.childrensmercy.org/microsoft-blog-to-best-monitor-kids-health-at-home-parents-become-partners/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/microsoft-blog-to-best-monitor-kids-health-at-home-parents-become-partners/Lori Erickson, APRN, partnered with Microsoft on a blog series focused on how to build relationships to improve home monitoringIn recent posts on Microsoft's blog, Lori Erickson, Heart Center APRN, discussed how to improve the success of home monitoring by engaging with parents and developing a partnership in caring for the patient. Based on the great tips she shared it’s easy to see why our CHAMP families love working with Lori!

Taking a newborn home is an exciting and often scary time for parents. Add in that your baby has a heart condition and has needed surgery before they were even a month old, and the stress can be incredible as you leave the hospital setting and go home. Single ventricle nurses can help parents while they are at home in the first few months of life by proactively monitoring the infants.

As nurses, we’d always rather be proactive than reactive. We don’t just want to wait for a phone call that something bad has happened to our patient. But in order to be proactive, we often need the help of our patients and their families, especially when home monitoring is part of the care plan.

The prize recognizes innovative nursing programs and practices in ANCC Magnet®-recognized organizations. Cerner encourages cutting-edge nursing programs and practices by sponsoring the $50,000 purse attached to The Magnet Prize®. The prize money will help Children’s Mercy further develop the innovative program selected for The Magnet Prize. This year’s award was presented Oct. 5, at the 2016 National Magnet Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Children's Mercy received the Magnet Prize for its Cardiac High Acuity Monitoring Program (CHAMP). Nearly 2,000 babies are born each year with congenital heart disease consisting of a single ventricle (SV). CHAMP combines traditional SV home monitoring, a service where nurse coordinators provide triage at home for highly fragile infants, with an innovative new app developed by the Ward Family Heart Center team at Children’s Mercy. Parents enter patient information into CHAMP, which transfers home monitoring data and videos in near real-time to the CHAMP home monitoring care team. Once entered into the CHAMP web portal, the data is evaluated through algorithms and can trigger instant alerts to the team for further evaluation of each SV child.

Nationally, 2 to 20 percent of babies with SV heart disease, such as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, will not survive the time period between the first and second surgeries, known as the interstage. However, since Children’s Mercy started using the CHAMP app in March 2014, none of its 62 SV patients have died during interstage. Today, 55 U.S. sites, representing nearly 80 percent of all centers that perform SV heart surgery on infants, and eight international sites have expressed interest in using CHAMP.

"We are honored to receive the prestigious Magnet Prize and are very excited that the CHAMP program is being recognized for its innovative use of technology to achieve excellent patient care outcomes," said Cheri Hunt, MHA, BSN, RN, NEA-BC, senior vice president for Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer, Children’s Mercy Kansas City.

The Magnet Recognition Program® recognizes health care organizations that provide the very best in nursing care and uphold the tradition of professional nursing practice. Winning organizations must meet specific criteria, such as extraordinary nursing activities that have been sustained over an extended period of time, innovations that are beyond the characteristics of Magnet organizations, or positive outcomes that have been demonstrated and empirically linked to the innovation.

“This award is a testament to Children’s Mercy’s contribution to nursing innovation in the pediatric industry, as well as in Kansas City,” said Eva Karp, RN-BC, MBA, FACHE, senior vice president and chief clinical officer, Cerner. “As a longtime Cerner client, we are proud of Children’s Mercy’s many accomplishments. Congratulations to the nursing team at Children’s Mercy!”

Children's Mercy Kansas City is a 354-bed comprehensive pediatric medical center that integrates clinical care, research and medical education to provide care for patients ages birth to 21. In 2003, it became the first hospital in Missouri and Kansas to earn the prestigious Magnet designation for excellence in patient care.

About Children’s Mercy Kansas City

Founded in 1897, Children’s Mercy is one of the nation’s top pediatric medical centers. With not-for-profit hospitals in Missouri and Kansas, and numerous specialty clinics in both states, Children’s Mercy provides the highest level of care for children from birth through the age of 21. U.S. News & World Report has repeatedly ranked Children’s Mercy as one of “America's Best Children's Hospitals.” For the fourth time in a row, Children’s Mercy has achieved Magnet nursing designation, awarded to fewer than seven percent of all hospitals nationally, for excellence in quality care. Its faculty of more than 700 pediatric subspecialists and researchers across more than 40 subspecialties are actively involved in clinical care, pediatric research, and educating the next generation of pediatric subspecialists. Thanks to generous philanthropic and volunteer support, Children’s Mercy provides medical care to every child who passes through its doors, regardless of a family’s ability to pay. For more information about Children’s Mercy and its research, visit childrensmercy.org. For breaking news and videos, follow us on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

About The Magnet Prize®In 2002, the ANCC board of directors established The Magnet Prize to encourage the pursuit of excellence. The Magnet Prize recognizes organizations with unique programs where innovative action transforms nursing practice. The interventions and outcomes benefit the nursing profession as a whole and have direct impact on patients in various settings. This award serves as a means for acknowledging peak performance within credentialed Magnet organizations and is the highest honor ANCC bestows within the Magnet community. Cerner has sponsored the award since 2007.

About Cerner

Cerner’s health information technologies connect people, information and systems at more than 25,000 provider facilities worldwide. Recognized for innovation, Cerner solutions assist clinicians in making care decisions and enable organizations to manage the health of populations. The company also offers an integrated clinical and financial system to help health care organizations manage revenue, as well as a wide range of services to support clients’ clinical, financial and operational needs. Cerner’s mission is to contribute to the systemic improvement of health care delivery and the health of communities. Nasdaq: CERN. For more information about Cerner, visit cerner.com, read our blog at blogs.cerner.com, connect with us on Twitter at twitter.com/cerner and on Facebook at facebook.com/cerner. Our website, blog, Twitter account and Facebook page contain a significant amount of information about Cerner, including financial and other information for investors.

]]>Press Releases,Heart,story ideasWed, 05 Oct 2016 23:42:41 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_anccmagnetconfetti.jpg?10000AHA to Parents: Protect Your Kids From Secondhand Smokehttp://news.childrensmercy.org/medpage-today-aha-to-parents-protect-your-kids-from-secondhand-smoke/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/medpage-today-aha-to-parents-protect-your-kids-from-secondhand-smoke/An estimated 24 million children and teens in the United States are routinely exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke, and the American Heart Association (AHA) is calling on parents and health policy makers to take a "zero tolerance" approach to such exposures.

Citing extensive research published in the two decades since the AHA last weighed in on secondhand tobacco smoke exposure among children, the newly published scientific statement noted that there is now strong evidence linking exposure to side stream and other secondhand tobacco smoke to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease later in life.

Minority children and children living in poverty have some of the highest exposures, with 68% of African American preteen children being exposed in a recent CDC analysis, compared with 37% and 30%, respectively, of non-Hispanic white and Hispanic children.

"The evidence calls for a robust public health policy that embraces zero tolerance of childhood secondhand smoke exposure," writing committee chair Geetha Raghuveer, MD, of Children's Mercy Kansas City and colleagues, wrote in the AHA journal Circulation, published online Sept. 12.

In an interview with MedPage Today, Raghuveer said significant reductions in childhood secondhand smoke exposures have occurred in the half century since the publication of the first U.S. Surgeon General warning detailing the harmful effects of cigarette smoking.

But she added that exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke remains high among children, especially those living in poverty.

"With this scientific statement we hope to increase awareness among pediatricians and other providers and policy makers about the risk of secondhand smoke exposure that continues to be prevalent in children and the life-long cardiovascular consequences," she said.

]]>In The News,HeartWed, 14 Sep 2016 18:38:23 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_secondhandsmoke-2.jpg?10000After heart transplant, teen given retro surprisehttp://news.childrensmercy.org/after-heart-transplant-teen-given-retro-surprise/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/after-heart-transplant-teen-given-retro-surprise/Ayden Ethridge knew the Ford Mustang was in bad shape. That didn’t make him want it any less.

He had planned on saving money and restoring the rusted and aging car his family owned. The problem was that he’s only 15 years old. And a life saving heart transplant earlier this year left him a little behind on his driver education.

The teenager woke up early Saturday morning and came to Children’s Mercy where doctors saved his life earlier this year. He thought he was only coming to meet some familiar faces, the folks who’d helped him when was sick. But when Ayden walked out the hospital doors, what he saw was that same Mustang, new and restored.

“The best gift,” Ayden said as he sat in his car for the first time.

And then he got out, and gave his mother, Jill Gillett, a tearful hug.

Back in February, Ayden came to Children’s Mercy because of heart failure. While he was sick, his mother said that 1965 Mustang the family owned would be his one day. It needed some tender loving care, and likely some new brakes. She promised him the car, not knowing if he’d ever get to drive it. But just after Valentine’s Day, the kid from Fredonia, Kansas, became the hospital’s fifth heart transplant patient.

“You’ve got a new heart in the same body for your car,” Gillett said. “(It’s the) same as you.”

The car has new brakes, a new suspension and a new interior, thanks to Ayden’s family and Scott Hoag, the CEO of Mustang Racing Technology.

“We decided that the theme for today would be to keep it in its farm fresh glory,” Hoag said of his company’s restoration work on the car. “This is the car that Ayden has in his mind.”

In between the feeling of shock and hugs with the medical staff and his family, Ayden said already knew the first place he wanted to take the car.

]]>In The News,HeartMon, 29 Aug 2016 19:22:45 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_aydenampfamily.jpg?10000Children’s Mercy app brings doctors home, virtually, with babies born with heart diseasehttp://news.childrensmercy.org/childrens-mercy-app-brings-doctors-home-virtually-with-babies-born-with-heart-disease/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/childrens-mercy-app-brings-doctors-home-virtually-with-babies-born-with-heart-disease/When Autumn Parkinson was 26 weeks pregnant, her doctor asked her to come back in for another ultrasound to make sure her baby’s heart didn’t have only one ventricle, a serious congenital disease called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). Parkinson, who has two other healthy children, researched HLHS but didn’t dwell on it too much.

“The disease was so rare and severe that I never considered it would be in our future,” she says. “We thought maybe they just hadn’t seen the ultrasound properly.”

Four months later, after surgery and an eight-week stay at Seattle Children’s Hospital for her newborn, Job, she and her husband found themselves back home in a rural area of Tacoma, Washington, with a medically fragile infant who needed constant monitoring until his next surgery in six months. Parkinson knew from HLHS support groups she’d found online that most parents had to take painstaking records daily in a three-ring binder and phone them in to their doctors to watch for complications, and even then, as many as 25 percent of the babies would die before their second surgery.

But thanks to the vision of a technologically minded doctor and his team in Kansas City, Missouri, 1,900 miles away, Parkinson has been able to relax into the routine with the comfort of knowing her baby’s cardiologist and nurse are looking over her shoulder every day, via the cloud. An app conceived by Dr. Girish Shirali, a pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City, has already saved babies and made life easier for their worried parents, and now it’s expanding across the country and being contemplated for other diseases as well.

“We focused on this disease because it’s the one where we knew the outcomes were really bad,” Shirali says. “But it quickly became clear that there are plenty of other conditions we can use it for, too.”

]]>in the news,Research,HeartThu, 21 Jul 2016 17:39:08 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_ericksonchampresize.jpg?10000Children's Mercy Ranked as one of Nation's Top Pediatric Hospitalshttp://news.childrensmercy.org/childrens-mercy-ranked-asone-of-nations-top-pediatric-hospitals/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/childrens-mercy-ranked-asone-of-nations-top-pediatric-hospitals/Hospital ranked in all 10 specialties by U.S. News and World ReportFor the fourth year, Children’s Mercy is once again recognized as one of the top pediatric hospitals in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report’s 2016-17 “Best Children’s Hospitals” report. Children’s Mercy is listed among the best in the nation in all 10 pediatric specialties included in the nationwide survey.

This year, U.S. News surveyed more than 180 pediatric centers to gather clinical and operational data. This data was then combined with results from a reputational survey in which board-certified pediatric specialists representing the 10 specialties were asked where they would send the sickest children in their specialty.

“Being listed again this year among the nation’s best - in all 10 specialties – clearly affirms that the Kansas City region has one of the best children’s hospitals,” says Dr. Randall O’Donnell, President and CEO of Children’s Mercy. “The whole hospital and all its employees are a part of what makes us outstanding. And we aren’t done yet. Much more can and will be accomplished as we practice, teach and research the best ways to deliver quality pediatric care and provide the best outcomes for our patients and families, today and in the future.”

]]>Press Releases,Heart,Cancer,Neonatology,in the newsTue, 21 Jun 2016 15:00:00 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_legocrop.jpg?10000Kansas high school baseball pitcher overcomes heart transplant to play againhttp://news.childrensmercy.org/local-high-school-baseball-pitcher-overcomes-heart-transplant-to-play-again/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/local-high-school-baseball-pitcher-overcomes-heart-transplant-to-play-again/"He's a good pitcher. He throws a lot of offspeed. He throws strikes. He's not gonna overpower you by any means but he throws the ball really well." That's how Goddard Eisenhower head baseball coach Cary Dinkel described one of his starters, Senior Josh Oakley.

Josh started noticing a difference in his stamina towards the end of his Junior season. Oakley explained, "Things weren't right probably even last spring. I was just getting fatigued easier. But I just thought I was getting out of shape I guess."

Eventually the fatigue caught up with him, leading to a string of doctor visits throughout the summer.

"We couldn't figure out what was going on at all until early August, I went to the doctor and they did an x-ray and found out that my heart was twice the size it was supposed to be," he recalled. "I just kind of thought, 'Okay, I'll take a couple months off or something and get back into it.' I had no idea that I would be in the hospital the next day getting airlifted to Kansas City."

He was diagnosed with Dialated Cardio Myopathy, in need of immediate treatment. He was flown to Children's Mercy in Kansas City and placed on a heart transplant list with the life-threatening condition.

Oakley spent six weeks waiting for a new heart, while his own began to fail him.

One night, the doctors informed the Oakley family that Josh's health was in a dire state.

But in miraculous timing, the very next day, his family got the news: Josh had a match. He underwent heart transplant surgery and shortly after was already asking about getting back on the field.

"They said it was a perfect match for my body and that if I wanted to and could get back to it, that I was completely cleared to do it," said Oakley.

Four months later, Josh took the walk he'd set a goal to take again, the one from the dugout to the pitcher's mound. He showed everyone what having heart is really about.

"It was awesome to get back out and get my first start. I tried to just treat it like any other start I've ever had but it definitely meant more than any other one I've ever had."

]]>in the news,HeartWed, 11 May 2016 15:00:00 +0200https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_joshoakley1.jpg?10000Children's cardiac conditions alter daily life for them, parentshttp://news.childrensmercy.org/childrens-cardiac-conditions-alter-daily-life-for-them-parents/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/childrens-cardiac-conditions-alter-daily-life-for-them-parents/The 2-year-old rides like the wind on his angelfish rocker, even attempting the “Look, Mom, no hands” trick under the watchful eye of his mother.

The fact that Audrey Thompson’s son Michael Harrelson is so active is a blessing for her. Born with two heart defects, Michael had his first open heart surgery when he was just 36 days old.

Today when Thompson gently lifts her son’s shirt, the scar down the center of his chest is fading. Still, despite his outward healthy appearance, the hard times aren’t over. Currently they are waiting for further surgery to remove abnormal tissue below his aortic valve.

“Despite everything, he’s doing great,” said Thompson, who was wearing a hoodie that declared her the “Proud Mommy of a heart warrior.”

Congenital heart disease (CHD) affects nearly 1 percent of – or about 40,000 – births per year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

When Thompson heard the news, she was scared and clueless about everything that was happening to her brand new infant, who began struggling to breathe when he was 13 days old. Doctors thought his heart was enlarged and admitted him to Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Hospital on Dec. 23, 2013 for further tests. That’s where he spent his first Christmas and the first days of his life until Feb. 2, 2014.

Congenital means present at birth. Hearing of a heart defect opened up a frightening world at a time of such joy for Thompson and Michael’s father, Michael Harrelson.

Researchers studied the relationship between volume of cardiac catheterization procedures and major adverse events in patients with congenital heart disease based on data from the IMPACT registry for procedures performed between 2011 and March 2015. They presented their findings at Cardiology 2016, the 19th Annual Update on Pediatric and Congenital Cardiovascular Disease.

“Although the risk [for major adverse events] after cardiac catheterization in patients with [congenital heart disease] is low at all hospitals, it is higher among hospitals with fewer than 150 cases annually,” Natalie M. Jayaram, MD, pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, Kansas City, Missouri, and colleagues wrote in an abstract. “These results support the notion that performing congenital cardiac catheterization procedures at higher-volume centers may be associated with improved patient outcomes.”

]]>in the news,HeartFri, 11 Mar 2016 21:19:22 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_jayaramn15.jpg?10000CHAMP helps Children's Mercy team monitor complex heart patients at homehttp://news.childrensmercy.org/champ--helps-childrens-mercy-team-monitor-complex-heart-patients-at-home/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/champ--helps-childrens-mercy-team-monitor-complex-heart-patients-at-home/Cardiac High Acuity Monitoring Program includes sending data directly to doctors and nurses by using an appNow 11 months-old, Jace Vanderpool has a single ventricle heart defect. For a time every meal, every detail, was logged into the CHAMP app developed by a team at Children's Mercy.

]]>in the news,HeartThu, 18 Feb 2016 21:21:05 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_20141201-cmh-carsonapp-0182-2.jpg?10000Did you miss Inside Pediatrics' Heart Month episode? Watch it here!http://news.childrensmercy.org/did-you-miss-the-special-heart-month-episode-of-inside-pediatrics-watch-it-here/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/did-you-miss-the-special-heart-month-episode-of-inside-pediatrics-watch-it-here/Nearly 2,000 children across the country are currently waiting for an organ transplant, including 318 children in need of a new heart. To celebrate Heart Month, a special episode of Inside Pediatrics followed two patients - a toddler and a teen - as they wait for their new heart. Narrated by Paul Rudd, The Heart of Children's Mercy tells the stories of Sawyer and Marisa:

Click here to learn more about the Heart Failure and Transplant Program team and the Ward Family Heart Center at Children’s Mercy Kansas City.

]]>in the news,HeartWed, 17 Feb 2016 17:27:45 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_sawyer-byrne-ip-6resize.jpg?10000Testing helps determine if children with heart issues can exercise safelyhttp://news.childrensmercy.org/testing-helps-determine-if-children-with-heart-issues-can-exercise-safely/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/testing-helps-determine-if-children-with-heart-issues-can-exercise-safely/February is American Heart Month15-year-old Jalen Kimmel's heart is being put to the test at a Children's Mercy Hospital clinic. As a pre-schooler, Jalen had surgery to correct a heart defect. She later became a basketball player, but one day at practice, she had a scare.

"She said 'Dad, I'm not feeling good' and she was very pale," recalled her father, Randy Kimmel.

Eventually, doctors found Jalen's problem. It was another heart defect, a long mitral valve that under stress could block blood flow and potentially cause a heart attack. Jalen went on medication to reduce the stress, but there was still the question of whether she could safely exercise.

That's where maximal exercise testing comes in. Kids are asked to exercise as hard as they can while exercise physiologists look at their blood pressure, oxygen saturation, heart rate and rhythm.

"Based on the results of those testing, the physician is able to help figure out the appropriate amount of exercise the patient can do safely," said Kelli Teson, an exercise physiologist, who added, "The majority are able to exercise as they wish and that's what we are actually wanting them to do as we know aerobic exercise is very important for your heart health and the more we can get these kids doing, the better."

]]>in the news,HeartWed, 03 Feb 2016 18:23:38 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_jalen.jpg?10000Teen Featured in "Inside Pediatrics" Still Waits for Hearthttp://news.childrensmercy.org/teen-featured-in-inside-pediatrics-still-waits-for-heart/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/teen-featured-in-inside-pediatrics-still-waits-for-heart/Marisa Santillan is a senior at Shawnee Mission North High School. She'll tell you she's a pretty typical teen. She's on the heart transplant list at Children's Mercy Hospital.

You can also find complete Inside Pediatrics episodes, webisodes and additional information atinsidepediatrics.com.

]]>Heart,in the newsTue, 29 Dec 2015 16:29:24 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_marisa.png?10000App Helps Save Lives of Babies with Heart Defectshttp://news.childrensmercy.org/app-helps-save-lives-of-babies-with-heart-defects/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/app-helps-save-lives-of-babies-with-heart-defects/New data shows the success of CHAMP appTablet computers aren't just for fun and games. With new data showing the success of an app developed for babies born with heart defects, doctors at Children's Mercy say this sort of technology can be lifesaving. Since March of 2014, the Cardiac High-Acuity Monitoring Program, or CHAMP app, has been used with 30 babies born with a single-ventricle heart defect, which requires three surgeries and vigilant at-home monitoring in between.

The app gathers critical stats on the baby, such as oxygen saturation, weight and feeding logs, and even videos of their breathing, which is all sent directly to the care team. Doctor Girish Shirali is the co-director of the Ward Family Heart Center at Children's Mercy, and he says the results have been remarkable.

"Typically, we would have lost between 10 percent and 20 percent of our babies who were discharged from the hospital before they were to come back for their second stage surgery," he says. "And since we put the program in place, we've not lost anybody."

In the past, parents had to manually record this data in a three-ring binder. Shirali says not only does the app reduce their burden, it also allows for all the data to be captured and used to better understand and treat this condition in the future. An estimated 3,000 children in the U.S. have this defect, which requires rapid intervention when complications arise or it can be fatal. Shirali says the study showed the app, which automatically alerts doctors when critical stats reach a certain threshold, sees things parents and caregivers can easily miss.

"They didn't pick up that there was a problem," he says. "The system picked it up. And those turned out to be pretty significant. Eight of those ended up they needed a heart catheterization or an operation." Shirali says he believes apps like this could represent the future of medicine, allowing doctors to better treat many conditions requiring close monitoring and quick action.

]]>in the news,HeartMon, 14 Dec 2015 22:32:25 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_20141201-cmh-carsonapp-0182.jpg?10000Report Finds One in Five Kids Has Cholesterol Problemhttp://news.childrensmercy.org/report-finds-one-in-five-kids-has-cholesterol-problem/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/report-finds-one-in-five-kids-has-cholesterol-problem/Doctors Urge ScreeningThe Tucker brothers, Hunter and Peyton, try to stay active whether it's at Liberty High School or in the great outdoors. It's one way they're fighting a silent enemy.

"My dad's side has a long history of it and stuff," said Peyton.

Hunter added, "It's tough taking it serious all the time because there's a lot of food that you want to eat."

Both boys have high cholesterol that puts them at higher risk for heart attacks and strokes earlier in life.

Heredity is one huge factor. But doctors say the obesity epidemic is also behind the new numbers showing one in five kids has a cholesterol problem.

They say increased screening is a factor, too. The nation's pediatricians have new screening recommendations.

"Every child should be screened at 9 to 11 years of age and again from 17 to 21 years of age regardless of risk factors," said Dr. Jonathan Wagner of Children's Mercy Hospital.

Dr. Wagner says when the numbers are high, exercise and changes in eating habits are the first treatments. But he says at least 200,000 kids in America have levels so high they need statin medicines. The effects of statin use over many decades aren't known yet, so Children's Mercy is doing research.

"To get them that just-right dose medication tailored to the individual patient," said Dr. Wagner.

]]>in the news,Research,HeartFri, 11 Dec 2015 22:08:30 +0100https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1483/500_blooddraw.png?10000Young fan sends inspiring message to Royals before surgeryhttp://news.childrensmercy.org/young-fan-sends-inspiring-message-to-royals-before-surgery/
http://news.childrensmercy.org/young-fan-sends-inspiring-message-to-royals-before-surgery/ Gabriel had heart surgery on the same day the team played Game 5 in the ALDSThe pressure was on for the Royals Wednesday night-- but the team has a special little super-fan also putting up a fight. As the team prepared for ALDS Game 5, hoping to knock out the Astros, three-year-old Gabriel was knocking out his third open heart surgery.

"I knew his surgery would be this day, and when they won the other night, and I knew their game would be Wednesday, I was like, that`s pretty awesome," said Vanessa Walker, Gabriel's mom.

Almost three years ago, at Walker's doctors visit at 20 weeks, an ultrasound was done to find out sex of her baby. But doctors found more than that.

"They detected a single ventricle," added Walker.

A single ventricle is a congenital heart defect due to abnormal development of the fetal heart. A series of operations are necessary to correct it.

"At five days old, he had his first open heart surgery," she said.

Gabriel was born at Children's Mercy hospital. He was 76 days old before he came home, and had a second open heart surgery almost three weeks later.

"With his heart condition, there`s three surgeries that are required for these children to make it to adulthood, and this is the final one in those stages," Walker said.